RESPONSIBILITY

Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. In Jesus' holy name we pray. Hey folks, this is Reverend Mary coming to you once again in the holy name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior from Along The Way Ministries. Glad that you're here with me on this evening. Hope and pray that something is said and done to lift you up, to draw you closer to the Lord Jesus and to just give you an enhanced relationship with him in a mighty way. From Along The Way Ministries, as a disciple in Christ, I am bound in the spirit of love and obedience to the will of God to go ye therefore and teach to all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Today, we want to talk about responsibility. Folks, responsibility. And I have some scripture for us. It's concerning anger. Ephesians 4, 23. I'm sorry, 26 and 27. Be angry and sin not. Let not sin go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. It's because anger is a heavy burden. Do not bring it with you into today. It is not profitable unto salvation, does not bring God glory, and it has a terrible growth rate that is like a forest fire burning out of control. You know, with no rain in sight, can you imagine the destruction behind that? Lord have mercy. James 4, 7. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Praise the Lord. Scripture is for spiritual growth. It is spiritual food to make one think and to enhance our knowledge about what God expects of us. Amen. James 2, 19. Thou believe that there is one God. Thou does well the devil also believe and tremble. Amen. Luke 10, 17. And the savagery returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. Praise the Lord. You know, this means that you have authority against demons in the mighty name of Jesus. Call on them people. His name is music to my lips. Praise you, sweet Jesus. Now, what we're going to do right now is acknowledge that God is good. Amen. No matter what. He is worthy of our praises, our allegiance, our obedience, our loyalty, faithfulness, unwavering faithfulness, and love of all. No matter what I repeat, he is unfailing God, everlasting God. He is utterly and totally magnificent in all his glory and in all his ways. You know what? If he stopped doing for us right now, there is not a lifetime long enough to sum up into words what God has done for us. You know, his benefits toward us occur with each heartbeat in the blink of an eye, not to mention in the great mysteries of God. All that we do not know is mind blowing. Praise be unto God in all his glory, all his glorious wonders. Bless his holy name. Now, this is what we need to understand today. Right now, without delay. And it is just sending tidal waves to my spirit. Church, people of God, those who are seeking the truth, let us hear what the spirit is saying to the churches and those who will come to Jesus. Spirit says come. You know, the very minute something evil happens, something truly ungodly happens, it doesn't matter. You know, it's all ungodly, unholy. Children killing their classmates these days. Children turning against their parents. Parents turning against their sons and daughters. And criminals claiming territory. Enslaving neighbors and family members in the places where they live. And under the false pretense of perverted love and insane perverted loyalties by the use of highly addictive drugs. They're used to get people addicted so they can be in control of them. And then there is insane money made through the sale of illegal drugs. Drug use. So forth and so on. Lord have mercy. You know what I'm saying. Somebody loses their life over this insane, demonic mess out there in this lost world. Too often. The first thing out of someone's mouth is, why didn't God, where was God, why did God let this happen? You know, these battles of spiritual warfare are not fought by formless people. Not by invaders of this land. Not like that. Killing our own people. Americans. That is what I'm talking about. People, these are Americans mistreating Americans. We are not being invaded by outsiders, but within ourselves. God gave us freedom, free will, dominion. Made us able to make our own choices in every way, shape or fashion. And people don't call on him. They don't act like they need him until the blood is flowing. Lord have mercy. When things are going well, it is easy to say, thank God, if we will, you know. He's still God no matter what. And to be feared and worshipped no matter what. Stay with me now. Please open your hearts, open up your minds. We are going to find some beauty in these ashes. Glory to God. Follow me in scripture. I'm getting ready to show you how good God is all the time. We're going to Exodus. And it's very familiar, very familiar scripture. You know, God appointed a man named Moses. He was a Hebrew who was raised by the Egyptians. But he refused to conform to their ways and benefits. And this is Exodus, which is the second book of the Old Testament. Bear with me because I'm going to cut to the chase. I will try to stay in my appointed rounds. Praise God. Come on, Father. Show out. Use me to thy glory. Okay, now I'm going to introduce Moses to you. First of all, I'm going to read. Scripture can do it better than me. It's Exodus chapter 3, verse 1 through 10. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the backside of the desert and came to the mountain of God. He went to Horeb. Horeb, sorry. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire. And the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great thing. Why, this bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the burnt bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, who am I? And he said, draw not, not nigh him, but put off thy shoes from all thy feet, for the place whereon to thou stand is holy ground. Now Obe said, I am God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look up, to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their pecknesses. For I know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out, bring them up out of that land unto a good land, and a large, and a large, unto a land affluent with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Evites, and the Zebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people. The children of Israel out of Egypt. Amen. Moses was chosen by God to go down to Egypt to bring them out of slavery, to set them free. The task would not be easy, but God was with Moses. You know, Moses became a powerful man because God worked his works through this man. You must read the story of the Exodus. It is very, very compelling. God's people led out of bondage after over 400 years of slavery. He sent them free. Let us concentrate on not what he did, but how. What great lengths God will go for those he loved. It took ten terrible plagues to finally get Pharaoh's attention. But you must know that God could have brought his people out of Egypt by his word, by a wave of his hand. But he took those mighty mages so they would know he is a mighty God. All those miracles, miraculous things were done for their benefit. He wanted them to truly see that no weapon formed against them shall prosper. God sent Moses to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, saying, let my people go. God knowing that he would not yield. Now, this is what God did. He put a staff into Moses' hand, sent his brother Aaron with him for support. Moses used that staff in ways, people, that would shake you up today when you try to envision its depth. Yes, indeed. Okay. Let me point out the plagues now. So you've got to know this Pharaoh was wicked. He was not like his fathers before him when Joseph was in Egypt. See, Joseph was sold into slavery into Egypt. And instead of the evil that was perpetrated against him, you know, being his downfall, God used it for good. He made it all work for good. He found, Joseph found, he found favor in Egypt and he was second to the king. The king appointed him. He was appointed by the king to manage Egypt. You've got to read it for yourself for now. Time is not on my side. Not now. Okay. The plagues were water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock, pescalins, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the killing of the firstborn. Not only the firstborn children, but livestock, every living thing. And God allowed Pharaoh to get into his way. God allowed Pharaoh to get in his way, folks, because God had a plan. He had a purpose for his people. Now, the children of Israel were not touched, harmed in any way during all of this chaos. As a matter of fact, God had them to put sacrificial blood on the outside of the doorpost on every house of his people. He told them that the angel of death would be passing over every house in the land of Egypt. The doorpost that was not covered in the sacrificial blood, the firstborn will be destroyed. Every house of the Egyptians. He said the destroyer will not harm you. He said I will pass over you and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you. When I smite the land of Egypt, no harm will come to you. And that was the last plague, the killing of the firstborn. Okay. After the king of Egypt finally told Moses, take your people, get out of my sight, Moses did it in haste, following God's instructions, and stated on their journey that this is God. This is God's purpose to leave us out of bondage. And he started on that journey to pass over from slavery to freedom by God's mighty hand, prayed the Lord. Well, after all that was said and done, all the firstborn was gone in Egypt. Pharaoh was mad by then because his workforce was gone. So he decided to get his army together and go get the children of Israel and bring them back into slavery in Egypt because they had to do some work. They weren't used to doing any work. And when the folks realized they were being pursued, they began to fear. Can you imagine after all the miracles they had witnessed? They believed that God would somehow let them down, allow Pharaoh to destroy them. Wow. Nevertheless, they began to say we would be better off in Egypt rather than to be destroyed out here. I mean, they was grumbling and griping and shaking in their boots. People, God is so very good. God is good. God is patient. God is a very compassionate God. In chapter 13 through 14 of Exodus, let me read this. This is what God said. I'm telling you good. And Moses said unto the people, because God told Moses to tell his people this. After all that griping and grumbling. And Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you today. For the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you and ye shall hold your peace. Folks, you got to read Exodus. You got to read it. This was the parting of the Red Sea. This is where we come to, Lord, a beautiful, just overwhelming miracle. God had Moses depart the Red Sea, but right now I'm going to point out something else. We're going to come to that later, okay? I want to show you some more griping here. Then they came to Merah. And the waters were called Merah because they were bitter. They began to complain again. And Moses cried out to God. And God showed Moses a tree that he had thrown over into the water, and the water became sweet. So they had clean water to drink. And again, now in their journey, they became hungry. Somewhere in between Elam and Sinai, they started to complain again. Grumbling, talking about they wished they had died by the hand of the Lord in Egypt. I mean, these people were forever grumbling. And God's forever grieving. We know that God sent them manna from heaven. I can't imagine anybody not knowing that story. Food from heaven. Moses prayed for those folks, asked for forgiveness and help for them quite often. And this is what I want all of you to understand. When the praises go up, the blessings come down. God honors the prayers of the righteous. The Bible says that without faith, there is no pleasing God. You must believe that he's able, that his love for you is real. You've got to believe that he's real. Faith has nothing to do with physical. The physical is easy to see. Just look in the mirror, people. Faith is about what is yet to come to pass. But in Christ, you believe it's possible. You believe he is able. Even in the extra scripture, you can see that God is a giver in a mighty way. He accepts our praises. Our thanksgiving because he desires it. And it lets him know that we acknowledge him as God of his word, as a God who is able to deliver his people out of darkness, out of troubles, away from evil, out of the hands of the enemy. And he is able to clothe us and feed us and save us. You know, God chose you. You did not choose him. Don't doubt him. Don't turn your back on him. Hope above and beyond hope. Wait, wait, wait. Just wait. Stand. He heard the cries of his people. He came to their rescue. The plagues alone were so overwhelming. You know, it's not even funny. And those things are proof of what God will do for someone who mistreats his children. And, oh, be still, my heart. He divided the Red Sea so that they could walk over dry land to reach the other side into freedom. To God be the glory. And then Pharaoh's army had the audacity to believe that they could follow after God's people with intentions they had in their heart and God would not stop them. Oh, how arrogant. How foolish. You know, I can imagine them being about midway, you know. The Hebrew children, they're already out of the water now. They're already out of the pathway. Already out of the pathway. Because God, you know, parted so they could walk on dry land. And the Hebrew children standing on the opposite shores, Moses dropped his hands and the sea just swallowed Egypt. It swallowed them up. And then they began to sing songs and praise God. Moses led them into worship and praise. Glory to God. Hallelujah. I can just hear that. And if you read in Chapter 2 of Exodus, you'll be able to read that song. And you can just about see them, see the women dancing, you know, and playing the tambours and the instruments and continuing to praise, praise the Lord. And here we go again. This is on down the road here now. When they became thirsty, you know, if they just, you know, if they had just said, Father, thank you for all that you have done for us. Please lead us to clean water. We would be ever so grateful. Father, we have come to a time in our journey that we are hungry. You have provided so well for us. We assemble ourselves and we come in thanksgiving for what we are about to receive. Talk to him. Just stop and pray. Rather than to doubt him. Rather than to doubt him and just be fearful of where they came from and the tyrants. Oh, my goodness. Thank you. Holy Father, thank you for bringing us out of bondage. Don't you know that would have pleased God? They would have found favor. He would have loved it. People are no different today. Come against the evil with thanksgiving and praise for God is good. God is good. Come against the evil. Praise him for God is good and praise him for what he has already done. You know, you've got choices. And we need to take responsibility for our actions, for our choices. For your actions, your choices have consequences, you know. Be safe in God's perfect will. Think him out. First of all things, if you find yourself in trouble, the company you keep, stepping out on your own will, especially when you know what you're about to do will not meet with God's divine approval, expect to reap what you sow. Things will not always go well, but God says if you seek him early, you'll find him. God forgives and repairs, revives and restores. We sin and fall short, but we have the power to choose straight or crooked. We have the power to choose light or darkness, evil or good. We have the power to choose right or wrong. We can have peace and joy. We can have the world or the kingdom of God. God, amen. We have the power. We have the power in the name of Jesus Christ to overcome, to subdue. We have that. Folks, I'm going to read something beautiful. I'm going to read something that lets us know how we please, how we can please the Lord. Because we cannot expect God to rest, rule, and abide in America. If we keep giving, if we have given away, help me Jesus. Help me Father God. Help me Father God. Let me read this scripture. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures through all generations. This is the 100th Psalm. Oh, I've been knowing this scripture ever since I was a little girl. It's always blessed my soul. And remember, we cannot expect God to rest, rule, and abide in America. If you give it away to every pagan religion, every pagan god, every perverted way of life known to man, and expect him to just fold his hands and accept it. Because judgment is coming, my friends, it is coming. But God's judgment is righteous. You know, it is so easy to see someone else's faults. But when it comes to one's own faults, it is, oh, it's not the same. No, this is different. You know, we cannot afford to be hypocritical, double-minded, wishy-washy. God frowns. He frowns on these instabilities. Because we do not have to be this way. It just goes without saying. He is the rock of our salvation. He is solid. And we can anchor down in him, praise the Lord. Glory, hallelujah. Think about it, folks. We can anchor down in him. He is our solid ground. We can stand on him. He won't waver. We won't fall. You know, if he did fall, Jesus would be right there to pick us up. You see, this is what the Spirit is laying on my heart. But do not pick up a deadly weapon and blame God for what is in your heart. Don't sleep with someone else's husband or wife and speak as if God has something to do with it. He is a God. His Word, he said he would keep you. In his Word, he would keep you in the days of temptation and deliver you from evil. Thank you, Jesus. Seek him out. Do not gamble with your life, health, and strength using deadly drugs, drowning in alcohol, sleeping with strangers, contracting terrible diseases that doctors can't even find a cure for, or healing treatment. So, brothers and sisters, embrace the truth. Do not let the enemy trick you into not believing in our Heavenly Father. Do not let him trick you into treating our Heavenly Father as if he'd be a tyrant. That is what Satan is. That's one of his names. That is what he is. He is a tyrant. God is compassionate. God is loving. He is forgiving, merciful, and kind. You know, he is not going to leave us in this mess. There is Heaven waiting on us. There is eternal life waiting on us. And the people who are gone before us, we're going to see them again. And we're going to worship the Lord forever. We're going to celebrate forever. Praise the Lord. Oh, my goodness. God is so good. Oh, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Don't blame God for the things that we do. The enemy, a red, ugly head. But God and his angel armies have been defeating evil demons since the creation of man. And you know if the enemy can find a way to kill you, he will. So I tell you now, look up. Because he is looking back. He's looking down on you. Oh, with much love. And he wants you to be a part of him forever. So don't listen to the lies. Use your power. Call on the name of Jesus for strength. And I want you to consider this that I'm going to leave you for right now. Consider this. Just because you're breathing, it does not mean that you're living. That you're truly living. You're alive. That's all. Jesus is life. When you surrender to him, you live. Truly live. You have life. And life more abundantly. When this is all over, you have eternal life. One day. This is a thousand years. A thousand years. This is one day. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Father God Almighty. We know that you don't need us, but we're so glad you want us. We give you praise and we give you glory. And we come in thanksgiving for all that you do for us. And we pray, Father God, that you will continue to watch over us. Will continue to throw us into you. Use us for your glory. To exalt you. To praise you. Father God. And when your spirit, your Holy Ghost lives inside of us. In our hearts. That gives us something wonderful. To give back to others. Because we will have the word of truth in us. He lives in us. We will have the word of truth in us. And he abides with us. And because he abides with us. We can do something worthwhile in this life. To God be the glory. Thank you, Jesus. Brothers and sisters in Christ. People who are seeking the truth. And looking to be a part of this kingdom. Don't wait. Today is the day of salvation.